J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 150: Compositional Features and an Interpretation of the Literary text

Abstract

The article focuses on Bach's musical interpretation of Psalm 24 ‘Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich’ (For Thee, O Lord, I long) in Cantata No. 150 for choir, soloists and chamber orchestra. The approaches to research may differ depending on the artistic effect associated with the composer's embodiment of a word. At the same time, a study of artistic features should not limit itself to the literary text selected by the composer alone. It should consider what was discarded, since the unselected enhances the meaning of what is chosen. This approach to study a work that involves a literary text is feasible as it facilitates a more effective understanding of the author's arrangement of semantic accents. In our case, the composer discarded the verses about human sins that comprise most of Psalm 25. Instead, he laid an emphasis on the idea of salvation. What is even more important is the composer's way to translate words into music: he transforms the material from the conceptual sphere into sound and the discarded literary material finds its embodiment in music forming a new kind of holistic utterance that is different from the biblical text.

Keywords: I. S. Bach, psalm, interpretation, literary text, meaning, polyphony, texture, chorus, ensemble, lines of voices

For citation: Stogniy I. S. J. S. Bach’s Cantata No. 150: Compositional Features and an Interpretation of the Literary text [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2021, no. 4, pp. 30–47. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2021-4-030-047